PROFIT AND PESTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 118, 12 February 1926, Page 8

PROFIT AND PESTS

EXPORT OF DEER MEAT A PIONEER EFFORT WITH A WASTE ASSET At first sight it would appear that any scheme to establish an export trade in deer-meat confronted with insuperable obstacles. But forty odd years ago it seemed that to establish any sort of a frozen meat trade with Britain or America was equally unlikeiv. Yet the pioneers of the frozen mutton industry achieved the apparently impossible.

A meniorv of tliis find sitnilsr feats will deter most people from arbitrarily ruling out the practicability of a profitable export of venison or deer-meat. It is true that-to get wild stock to freezer is a problem in itself—a problem more formidable in the case of the deer than in that of the rabbit. When, however, it is stated that m certain districts over a thousand deer have fallen to one rifle in a few months, in country the access to which is difficult but not altogether impracticable, even the greatest doubter may concede the scheme a sporting The promoter —who has put into the developing of his plans a degree of work that deserves, even though it may not command, success —appears to be quite confident of the ability of his organisation to get sufficient deer-meat into freezer, and has latterly been concentrating his efforts on the selling and shipping sections of the undertaking. The last step in the matter of selling was an agreement by an American firm to take a small trial shipment • The shipping, it seems, is now the obstacle. A score or more of deer from the ” ellington Acclimatisation Society s easilyaccessible Paraparaumu reserve have alreadv arrived in Wellington as dead stock,'and if shipping arrangements can be made the experiment will, proceed. It is a common view that if the Government, following; its present trend in policy, organises or authorises a big effort to substantially reduce the hundreds of thousands of deer m New Zealand (reduction is possible, but extermination seems to be a. pious hope), then an export trade might provide a means of utilising meat that would otherwise rot. It is felt that to let thousands of deer carcasses, spoil, as has been done in the pa'st, is ail economic waste. On the other hand, th® r ® are people who complain, firstly, 'hat profitable export is impossible; secondly, that export will lead to deer being farmed in the same way as rabbits are (allegedly) farmed. The two hues of argument hardly seem to be consistent with each other'. Apart from that, however, the answer offered is that the deer-meat trade could not flourish without oversea markets, and is therefore controllable by export license. As to the anticipations of failure, that factor is the responsibility of the promoter, whose ability to play with energy a lone Imnd has attracted admiration even in quarters where no confidence is felt in liis ultimate success.